1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a prescription verification system for maintaining information on pharmaceutical prescriptions, and more specifically, but not by way of limitation for verifying the validity and status of prescribed pharmaceuticals.
2. Prior Art
The prescription drug industry consists of several different organizations and professionals. These groups included the health care providers, pharmacies, insurance companies, federal agencies, state agencies, local agencies, and pharmaceutical firms. Each of these groups function virtually autonomous from the others, and each has its own specific interests. This autonomy, coupled with a lack of centralized information, frequently leads to errors in the ordering and filling of drug prescriptions, improper use of prescribed drugs, fraud within the system, and increased costs to each group within the industry.
There are approximately 630,000 prescribers of pharmaceuticals and 76,000 pharmacies in the United States which filled 2.6 billion prescriptions last year. It has been estimated that up to $25 billion per year is attributable to drug fraud and abuse. Additionally, the U.S. General Accounting Office suggests that inappropriate use of prescription drugs exceeds $20 billion per year. Although certain ones of the groups previously mentioned, namely the insurance companies, maintain information relating to their clients, there exists no nationally recognized or easily accessible system for maintaining information on prescription drugs to minimize fraud, abuse, and errors associated with the prescription drug industry.
Furthermore, prescriptions handwritten by physicians are frequently misinterpreted, or completely illegible to the filling pharmacist. Even where such handwritten prescriptions are partially legible, the patient is at great risk of the dosage and special instructions being incorrectly labeled on the final prescription.
Problems also exist with prescribed medications, since patients frequently are unaware of the specific type of medications they are currently taking or simply forget. This presents a serious problem since drug interactions may be dangerous, if not fatal. However, there does not exist a centralized system for a health care provider to determine current prescription medications that a specific patient may be using.
Thus, a need exists for a prescription verification system that is readily accessible to the groups previously mentioned, and more specifically, but not by way of limitation, to the health care provider which prescribes the medications and the pharmacies which fill the prescriptions. It is to a prescription verification system capable of minimizing the fraud abuse and errors associated with prescription drugs that the present invention is directed.
The present invention relates to a prescription verification system for verifying prescriptions provided by a plurality of health care providers for a plurality of patients which can be filled through any one of a variety of patient-selected pharmacies. Each health care provider is provided with a health care provider system and each pharmacy is provided with a pharmacy system. In operation, a host system receives prescription information including a prescribed drug intended to treat a condition associated with a patient. The prescription information includes a dosage level for the prescribed drug, the drug label contents and any applicable notes to be included on the bottle, a unique health care provider code identifying the health care provider who input the prescription information, and a patient code uniquely identifying the patient.
In response to receiving the prescription information, a unique identification code associated with each prescription information is generated by the host system and the prescription information and the unique identification code associated with the prescription information are stored. Upon request, retrieval information based on the information associated with the prescription information received by the host system is transmitted to a patient-selected pharmacy system. The retrieval information includes the unique health care provider code identifying the health care provider who prescribed the prescription, the patient code uniquely identifying the patient, and the prescription information identifying the prescripted drug, dosage level, the drug label contents, and any applicable notes to be included on the bottle so that the pharmacist at the patient-selected pharmacy is provided with the necessary information to fill the prescription.
In another embodiment the present invention provides a prescription verification system for verifying pharmaceutical prescriptions provided by health care providers to patients which can be filled through any one of a variety of patient-selected pharmacies. The system includes a host system, a plurality of member health care provider systems, and a plurality of member pharmacy systems. The host system is capable of selectively receiving, storing and dispensing prescription information representative of a prescription for a patient and assigning a unique identification code associated with each prescription such that each prescription is selectively retrievable. The host system is also capable of receiving, storing, and dispensing information representative of the fulfillment of the prescription identified by the prescription information and assigning a confirmation code to the prescription information so as to indicate whether or not the prescription has been filled.
The plurality of member health care provider systems is remotely disposed from the host system and in communication with the host system. Each of the plurality of member health care provider systems is capable of receiving and inputting prescription information representative of the prescription for the patient into the host system, and is also capable of retrieving such prescription information. The plurality of member pharmacy systems is remotely disposed from the host system and in communication with the host system. Each of the plurality of member pharmacy systems is capable of inputting prescription information representative of the prescription for the patient into the host system and is also capable of receiving and inputting a confirmation code indicative of the prescription being filled into the host system upon fulfilling the prescription.